Methinks you doth protest too much!
By: Katie Jay, MSW, National Association for Weight Loss Surgery
My son is a picky, picky eater. He has been that way practically since birth.
Certain textures are intolerable to him, and no amount of trying seems to cure that.
I understand. I can’t touch dry wood without cringing. I never cook with a wooden spoon. My friend, Pat, never touches glass. She always uses a plastic cup.
Because I catered to my son’s picky-food demands, he began to use his pickiness to refuse foods that didn’t taste good to him — even if they weren’t intolerable from a texture perspective.
He won’t eat vegetable lasagna, because the slimy texture and the foods mixed together make him gag — literally. So, I don’t insist he eat that kind of food.
But, he also refused to taste cauliflower a few years back.
Solitary, non-slimy, cauliflower.
We argued. He stomped his feet. I badgered. He finally relented.
“Just one bite,” I demanded.
“Only one bite,” he insisted.
He put the cauliflower in him mouth and began to chew. Then his eyes teared up.
At first I felt guilty, because I thought, maybe this was a texture-related aversion. But, no, I argued with myself, the cauliflower is not slimy or mixed with another food.
“Why are you crying,” I asked?
Barrett growled in frustration and turned his face away from me.
“What’s wrong,” I begged?
As I moved to look at his face, he turned further away.
I tried again to see his face. He could turn no further, so I caught a glimpse.
I saw a facial expression that told me he was angry, but his mouth was happily chewing.
I grinned at him, “You like it!”
He growled again, but with a slight laugh in his voice, “I don’t like it. I don’t want to like it!”
WLS people I work with feel the same way sometimes about a new food or behavior.
Kathy, a coaching client, insisted during a recent phone call that she hates to exercise.
But she is regaining weight.
So, I asked her if she’d be willing to try some sort of movement — despite her hatred.
She reluctantly agreed.
“Just one try,” I nudged.
“Only one try,” she insisted.
We brainstormed a list of 10 things she could try. We included walking and swimming — the common exercises. But we also included belly dancing and yoga.
Ultimately, Kathy chose to borrow her neighbor’s mini trampoline and give it a try.
At the end of our next phone session, I noticed Kathy had not mentioned her exercise experiment.
So I inquired, “How did it go with the mini trampoline?”
At first there was silence on the other end of the line. She groaned, but I could tell she was smiling.
I grinned, “You like it!”
“I don’t like it!” Kathy retorted.
But, I could hear her laughing as she hung up on me.
Katie Jay, MSW, CTA-certified Wellness Coach is the Director of the National Association for Weight Loss Surgery. Sign up for her free email newsletter at www.nawls.com.
